My reservoir...

[Mark_Hardware]

Alright, this is going to be a little rough, so please bear with me. I've lost some pictures, plus it's been so long since my last update,
I'm gonna try my hardest to pick up where I left off, and keep things making sense.
The smoker unit is done, and operational, btw;

Got the first few pieces attached to the shell;

Painted the legs (and arm) metal silver, and blended the bone part into the metal.

Started with some wiring. There is a total of four circuits; the pump, the smoker, the lights, and one other effect that I haven't mentioned yet.
Three of which use these push on/ push off buttons. The two "heavier" circuits, the pump and the smoke, use relays.

Crap. I lost some of the progress pictures.
OK, I'm going to switch gears a little here.
The skull I was using? Well, we had a little.... mishap. Sooo, a plan B was formulated.

That's all the time I have for today. More, either tomorrow or Friday. Trust me, it's gonna be good.

[985323]

yay, Updates!
Looking really good

[x88x]

Looking good.

Originally Posted by Mark_Hardware

The skull I was using? Well, we had a little.... mishap.

Hmm, do tell...

[AmEv]

Lemme guess...

Kiddies got ahold of it, thought it would make a great throw-at/to-each-other thing, crash.

[Mark_Hardware]

Originally Posted by 985323

yay, Updates!

Indeed!

Originally Posted by x88x

Looking good.

Thanks!

Originally Posted by AmEv

Lemme guess...

Kiddies got ahold of it, thought it would make a great throw-at/to-each-other thing, crash.

Lmao not an unfair guess! Especially with my kids.
But no, basically what happened was, I was drilling a hole in it, when the the drill bit caught, and tore a giant chunk out. At first I was very disappointed, but it turned out to be a blessing in disguise.

[Mark_Hardware]

OK so to pick up where I left off yesterday.
Again, medical, life-size skull;

First order of business, install water pump;

(Nevermind that variac installed there, that ended up not working out in that location. More on that later.)

Second order of business, a three dollar camera from the Goodwill;

Pull out the lens assembly;

and install led;

and of course put into skull.

heatsink from an old processor;

and a dead hard drive. I cut the casing down and gave it a quick and dirty paint job.

I had to keep the circuit board in order for the hard drive to do, well, anything at all. And in order for that to work, I had to make
5V and 3.3V lines. Enter VRMs! Glued to the heatsink using a thin layer of glue, so they will still dissipate heat efficiently. I was going
to use rivets, but the metal parts touching made the voltages go screwy.

More work;

I glued a piece of circuit board to the water pump, just for look-sees

Stripped back down;

Paint!

I actually had to paint both sides. For some reason the skull was this weird, like yellowish color. So, I took a small piece of bone
into Lowes and had them color match me some paint, which came out phenominally well, then I spray painted the metal side. I used a brilliant
metal paint, but for some reason when I clear coated it, it took the brilliance out. At first I was upset, but actually, I'm pretty happy with this
resulting color. Then I hand brush painted the human side, (and yes the teeth, more mixed paint from Lowes).

And stuff going back on.

The two sleeved sets of wire you see there are from the two VRMs. More on that next update.

I did end up fixing that gap, just fyi.

And in case you were wondering, the led is wired directly to the leads on the hard drive itself, so when the hard drive is trying to boot, the eye flickers
along with the movement.

That's all for today!

[x88x]

Wow! Epic skull right there. Nice job.

[AmEv]

It takes some serious BRAINS to get it where it's at!

[Mark_Hardware]

OK, this will probably be the last update, then I'll do some finished shots...

This is where the lost progress pics would have been nice. So, we're gonna have to use our imaginations a little....

Screwy angle of the same picture as I used before. The shell is pulled off, and this is looking straight down. I think most, if not all, the wiring is actually done at this point.

There's the smoker unit. It's actually elevated off the floor by a few washers, cause it gets hot!

A backside shot. Three buttons; one for the pump, one for the led's, and one for smoke.
I know, it's kinda scary in there! I didn't feel like doing much for wire management, except make sure no wires are touching anything hot. Once the shell is riveted on, it ain't coming back off!

On the left side, you'll see something poking out, right behind that gear piece. That's a rheostat to control the fan speed on the smoker unit.

OK so here is a pretty weird picture... I actually went under my desk and took a picture looking straight up at the bottom of this thing.
The three wing nuts are the smoker unit bolts, and you can see the led's mounted.

No?

How about now?

(With flash)

Also mounted in some led's in the glass skull, as well.
Now, I don't know what happened to these pictures. Something with my camera phone, I guess when I use the zoom, it like, scrambles two pictures together, or something. It doesn't happen until later, and I don't have any other pitures of this. So, basically, just look at the bottom half of this picture. If anybody knows how to fix it, please, enlighten me. What's really f'd up is in the list thumbnail view on the computer, it's fine. It's only when I view the pic by itself. Same thing on the phone itself, and my wife's phone does the same thing.
grr...

flash on

Covert wiring

This is my power supply. It's an adapter that came with an electric cooler. Output is 12VDC, and enough current that I can feel confident it can
handle the job.

At this point, the shell is ready to be remounted. I also made a skirt, out of several pieces of material, which should look familiar...

These are mounted using angle iron screwed to the base.

Evolution;

Here is a motion sensor mounted. This is what's going to turn on the HDD in the skull. See, the hard drive works, but after it fails to boot, it won't work again until power is turned off, then back on. This motion sensor, with it's adjustable timer, solves that problem, plus creates a stimulus reaction, which is cool too.

The black hose stuffed with wire there contains as follows;

Wires for the led's. A rheostat is installed in the skull, it will be a dimmer for the led's in the base and glass skull.
power wires for pump.
lead from motion sensor. There is a 5PDT relay in the skull that also acts as a splitter, to provide power to the two VRM's.
Constant power, for the relay
And of course, a common ground. So, while it looks like it's just part of the show (so to speak) it actually has a very important function.

You know what, I lied. There is going to be one more update after this lol. Sorry this update was kinda, dirty... Bad pics, missing shots.... Such an ameteur
smh

[Mark_Hardware]

OK this should be the last update, then I'll post a handful of finished pics... I've been working on calculus for literally like 12 hours so my brain is kinda cooked. Still, hopefully this post is not as rough as my last one lol.

Some bondo work, to shape and hide lines and rivets;

Working my way across with sand. I kept referring to this part as "sanding." Seemed kinda confusing lol. What I did was paint the surface with contact cement, then spread the sand over it, section by section. When dry, I used a dry clean paintbrush to brush the loose sand off. If another layer was needed I just repeated.

Bolted the skull on. Believe me this was an exciting time for me!
A giant pain in the arse, too. Had to feed hoses, hook up to water pump, which of course had to be un-mounted to do so, then feed the black hose through the hole in the top of the cranium, then hook all those wires up. Funtimes

More progress;

Cage hung, and pump is actually on in these pics. It's alive!

An attempted night shot of the Screen on the side of the head. If you see in the old pics where the top is off, you'll see that I glued a piece of circuit board to the pump. There is an led that comes on steady when the relay is tripped;

It was so hard to try and get a picture that does it real justice. It really is sweet looking, if you ask me.

Back o' the head;

And a last shot for this, the final update;

Tomorrow, the conclusion! But have no worries, I still have another surprise for you!!